Executions Were Here

Photographer Emily Kinni visited states that no longer have the death penalty to see what became of the execution sites:

From Massachusetts to Alaska, the search required more time buried in libraries and speaking to locals than the actual photography itself. Records were often scarce, but town historians and people in the community came to her aid, recalling missing links or connections that eventually led to discovery. The resulting images are surprisingly mundane and ordinary given their former use. While some execution sites remain partially intact as totems of the past, others are wholly transformed with no trace whatsoever of their checkered history. Unexpected and insightful, the ongoing series acts as a fascinating document of what becomes of spaces originally designed for death.

Interestingly, Kinni is not a crusader for the abolition movement; her images are not intended as a call to challenge death penalty laws in 33 states … and nor do they read that way. “My affinity for these sites, cannot be considered without the political and historical issues of the death penalty, but it isn’t where it begins,” says Kinni. “My interest is in the evolution of these sites – how places for execution are changed and what the sites become eliminating their historical relevance.”